$5m tax fraud

A Pyes Pa man involved in an elaborate tax evasion scheme involving more than $5 million may soon be a free man thanks to a judge's discount scheme.
Bakhtiar Ahmad, 45, appeared for sentencing in the Tauranga District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to 64 charges of tax evasion in May last year, and also 23 counts of fraudulently using a document to gain pecuniary advantage.
Judge Peter Rollo said seven years in prison was an agreed starting point for sentence. He said it had been suggested by Judge Christopher Harding at an earlier appearance that a discount of 25 per cent should be given on the sentence to take into account Ahmad's guilty plea.
"The issue now is what further discount should be given."
Judge Rollo said
 he felt a 33 per cent discount better reflected the early guilty plea, plus a further 15 per cent should be given for the savings made because a lengthy trial was avoided.
 He also added another 12 per cent discount to take into account other factors such as Ahmad's expression of remorse. He said the total discount of 60 per cent meant that Ahmad would be given a sentence of two years and 10 months.
Ahmad has already served almost two years on remand and Judge Rollo said it was now up to the parole board to decide when Ahmad should be released. He said serving a remand sentence could often be harder  than serving a prison sentence and that Ahmad's incarceration had been difficult for his partner and child.
Ahmad, also known as Mr Bakhtiar, had been in custody since his arrest in 2007, and was refused bail as it was feared he would leave the country.
The  tax evasion scheme that Ahmad was tied up with involved at least 15 bogus companies and the filing of false invoices involving over $5.1 million.
 The charges stemmed from an Inland Revenue investigation which found that the Pakistani national had recruited people to help him set up at least 15 bogus agricultural companies operating in Bay of Plenty, Napier and Blenheim, to claim tax payments he was not entitled to.

The court had earlier heard that the scam enabled Ahmad to evade assessment of GST, income tax and PAYE between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2006.
Ahmad and his accomplices also provided false invoices to avoid GST, income tax and PAYE and to claim tax returns between April 1, 2004 and July 31, 2006.
Judge Rollo  described Ahmad as the "invoice writer" who had been involved with Mohammed Wasim, who has been described as a kingpin behind the  scheme. 
Judge Rollo also noted with concern during sentencing that there were "numerous cases of a similar nature" to Ahmad's.